Myth & LegendGreek → English
Hydra
/ˈhaɪdrə/noun
The many-headed monster killed by Heracles, hence any problem that multiplies when you attack it.
The Greek roots
ὕδρα
hýdra
water serpent
Literally: “water serpent”
Follow a root:ὕδρα1 word
The story of the word
The Lernaean Hydra grew two heads for every one cut off, and Heracles won only by having his nephew sear each stump with a torch. Linnaeus gave the name in 1758 to a freshwater polyp, because Abraham Trembley had shown that chopping one up produces several whole animals. The word is built on ὕδωρ, water, and the constellation Hydra is the largest in the sky.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → English
- First recorded
- 14th century
The same roots elsewhere
Other languages reached for exactly the same Greek pieces.
Same family
hydranthydrogendehydratehydraulic
In a sentence
Every rule they wrote spawned three loopholes; the thing was a hydra.